


Hexenbiester, They Be Sneaky

by shadowolfhunter



Series: Baby Girl [1]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Elizabeth wants more grandbabies, M/M, Mpreg, she is not prepared to wait any longer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-08 02:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: Elizabeth has one grandchild... she wants more... and only son is not being obliging. So what's a hexenbiest to do? Use her powers and teach only son a lesson, maybe?





	1. Suspicion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tolieawake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolieawake/gifts), [TeamRenhardt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamRenhardt/gifts).



> This popped into my head. And wouldn't leave. So I went there.

He loved his mother, he really did, or in as far as he knew what love was, and his mother being full of ambition and a hexenbiest to boot... On balance, he should have been a lot more suspicious that during her latest visit, the question of more grandchildren had not come up once. It was absolutely not in Elizabeth's nature to give up. At all. Ever.

The brief carnal fling with Nick of all people. Fling? One night stand. Nick going back to hating him and ignoring him the next day.

Sean sat heavily on the closed toilet seat and stared at the stick in his hand.

He very rarely gave in to the need to swear. To his mind it was vulgar and unnecessary, but SHIT!!

So here he was. The evidence was all there. The vaguest hint of a bulge just below his waistline, having to loosen his belt two notches, and the overwhelming nausea which had arrived shortly before breakfast that morning.

The nausea he felt right now was less about his body's reactions to a foreign invader... _invader_ and more about the sudden realisation that his mother's ambitions had caught him but good this time. A few brief seconds, Sean's lower lip trembled. He gritted his teeth. He was not going to cry. He hadn't cried since he was four and Erik, his evil shit of a half brother, had tripped him down the stairs, breaking his right arm in three places on the way down. After nearly forty years of not crying, or not really crying, he was not about to lose it now.

He was pregnant. He was just going to have to deal with that. Nick....

Sean closed his eyes and gritted his teeth even harder. Nick was the only possible 'father', immaculate conception having gone out of vogue centuries ago, though it wasn't as though his mother could not have conjured that up.... Except that one night stand, seemed more of a dream than a reality, and knowing exactly what his mother was capable of, and a Grimm at the height of his powers would have been an irresistible 'stud'.

Sean tried very hard not to think of himself as a brood mare, but the comparison was irritatingly unmistakeable.

He laid the stick on the counter next to the basin, next to the three previous sticks. Not that Sean was disbelieving, he knew his mother, but irrefutable evidence always helped He put his head in his hands. He figured he was on his own. So what was new? The question of NIck, and Nick's need to get given the appropriate information, he shoved to the back of his mental closet. Time to deal with that later.

The here and now, so far it wasn't obvious, though within a couple of months at the very least, it was going to be extremely obvious. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. Diana loved him, she would keep his secret if he asked her. Work? Well, he had been kicking around the idea of a sabbatical since the whole haunting situation, since everyone apparently hated him, remaining aloof from the others wasn't exactly difficult. Taking time off work would be relatively simple.

What it all boiled down to was trust. Who was he going to trust with the secret? Despite everything, and he squirmed a little at this, he trusted Rosalee. But only Rosalee. If it was on Monroe's mind it came out of the blutbad's mouth, Monroe was the antithesis of discretion. Nick hated him, and likely wouldn't know or care that their one night together had led to this. He would be raising her on his own.

He glanced down at his still (mostly) flat belly. Somehow he knew she was a She.

In the midst of all his planning, getting rid of her never occurred to Sean.

He ran his hands through his short-cropped curly dark hair and burst into slightly hysterical laughter... _Papa don't preach_ he thought a little bitterly.


	2. The Planning Stages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean plans how he's going to deal with this latest crisis that is plaguing his life. It doesn't go quite how he expects.

By digging out all his three piece suits, and instructing his tailor to put more 'ease' in his shirts around the waist, Sean plans on getting through the next few weeks, while he strategizes how he is going to tell Rosalee without the rest of them finding out. Being semi-detached from the group may work to his advantage, but he's not sure if that's really going to work in the longer term. He needs to do something about a sabbatical too, but holds off, keeping his head down and working his ass off. Making no waves at all. Best all round.

The downside of his 'condition', he's tired all the time, and as for the so-called morning sickness, the daily apocalypse can erupt at any time, in any situation, sometimes more than once. He's intensely grateful for his iron self-control, which has gotten him out of more embarrassment in two and a half weeks than he cares to remember.

But it's the emotions, more than either his waistline or the vomiting that is messing with him. Nick hates him. That's been made perfectly clear. Multiple times. Nick is at best coldly civil and aloof, at worst, there's a brittle anger that Sean is (despite trying hard not to be) actually slightly unnerved by. His nervous feelings he puts down to hormones, and the fact that Grimms are traditionally the enemies of zauberbiester. He's well aware that he's not the only zauberbiest that has conceived before, that down the centuries, when zauberbiester were more hunted, in certain situations when the species was threatened, their continued existence was taken care of. Which isn't reassuring in the slightest. He's a pregnant zauberbiest in the twenty-first century. He's trying not to think too closely about that one.

So the 'father' of his child sits less than twelve feet from his office door, but hates his guts, which is doing a number on Sean's overly charged emotions; and depending on the time of day, directly connected to the other factors influenced by his 'condition' makes it incredibly difficult for the zauberbiest to hang on to his dignity. If, under these trying circumstances, his hand strays regularly to the little curve of his belly in a protective gesture, something he's not even aware of most of the time, well that's only natural, isn't it?

None of which helps him with the Rosalee question. He's now spent so long staring at his phone without picking it up that he is starting to imagine that he's rung her and all the ways that it can go massively wrong. If he wakes up in a sweat in the middle of the night, almost imagining that Jack is back, because he's projecting and is really scared stiff about the ways this can go so terribly badly, and that Rosalee, despite being the gentlest and most empathetic woman he's ever met, might turn out to be a raging monster who's going to eat his baby girl...

He is officially losing it.

Then week nine turns the corner, and somehow, despite the growing curve that is his belly, the fact that the waistband button of his elegant suit slacks no longer actually meet (the rubber band ball in his desk drawer finally turns out to have a use!), and he has to leave the bottom button of his vests unbuttoned to disguise the fact that his shirts are ever so slightly starting to strain over his 'situation', he finds there is less apocalypse, and he feels less tired and a hell of a lot calmer.

So he bites the bullet, waits until he's pretty sure she will be alone in the Spice Shop, and calls Rosalee.

 

Rosalee Calvert-Monroe has been through a lot in her life. But she has a good and loving husband who would protect her at all costs, three beautiful and lively children and given the ups and downs of the last few years where her blutbad husband's best friend was a Grimm, and all the other stuff that has happened, she figures that she has now seen it all.

Sean Renard, half-zauberbiest, half-Royal (as in Royal Families that have been a thorn in the side of all Wesen for centuries), sometime partial architect of the Black Claw disaster of last year, and slightly disgraced Police Captain sitting anxiously on her chaise longue and telling her he's pregnant... So totally new that for a moment she cannot actually form any kind of response. But she needs to, and quick, because he's leaning forward in that nervous way which tells her she's got five seconds to say something sensible before he bounces to his feet and flees her shop. And she wants to help, because she can see how scared he is, and how at sea, and it brings everything that happened after Jack back into sharp relief, including the feeling that if they had done more to care for Sean when he was so devastated over the Jack situation they might have avoided pretty much everything that happened next.

His eyes are tense, and a little frightened, and sympathy hits her in a wave. He's never asked for this, he never asked to die for Nick, or bring Jack back from the other side, or be possessed, and he was hurt and frightened and they did nothing for him. Only took what was given without care as to how Sean Renard might have been affected. She leans forward, lays a gentle hand on his arm, and says "Sean. It's alright. I'll help you."

He looks as though there's another question he wants to ask, but doesn't know how to frame it, and she's pretty certain it's about keeping this a secret, though how that is going to work in a few more weeks she doesn't know but... "and it's just between us."

He visibly relaxes, and she sees him for the first time without the shroud of authority or any other barrier, and wonders how he's managed all these years, holding everyone at bay because he clearly needs people. A twinge of guilt sweeps through her, he needed people eighteen months ago when he was shot and possessed, he had turned to Rosalee and Monroe, and they did little to help and protect him then. Indeed, they didn't really think about what Sean was suffering, than Jack made the Captain a threat that they all needed to neutralise.

So she asks him some practical questions, and is quite surprised when he tells her exactly how far he is into his pregnancy. She knew he was generally a solitary and very private creature, but to know exactly when he must have conceived because that's the only time he has been intimate with someone in almost three months, is rather depressing. Reading between the lines, he's lonely, but would never admit it under any circumstances.

"Who's the 'father'?" He tenses, and looks terrified, and she realises that's a conversation they may never have.

"It doesn't matter." He says, his tone tells her it does matter, a lot, to him, but there's some reason why he's unlikely to tell her. She puts her hand over his, and gives it a squeeze, he doesn't need to tell her, but she has to admit she's curious.

They talk more about practicalities, and she gives him some of the teas that she gives her other pregnant clients, he's a strong, fit and healthy half-zauberbiest in his prime, she's not concerned about many of the things that concern her with other Wesen client. He clearly understands good nutrition and how to take care of himself. So she's not going to insult his intelligence by telling him about looking after himself.

 

By the time Sean sneaks out of the backdoor of the Spice Shop, and half jogs to his Tahoe parked four streets over, he feels as though one weight has been lifted off. Despite her closeness with the Grimm, he knows that he can trust Rosalee. He slips into the driver's seat and for a moment he rests his right hand on his belly, _it's going to be alright Baby Girl._


	3. Shapes and sizes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are progressing...

Since Diana is the only person in Sean’s life who is likely to notice a change in him, he takes a deep breath and sits her down, then gives her the talk about how daddy might be putting on a little weight around his middle, but it’s nothing to worry about and he would be really happy if she didn’t mention it to Mummy… or Nick.

Diana looks at him calmly, says “Yes, Daddy. I love you.” And changes the subject, and Sean heaves a mental sigh of relief even though he can read in her eyes that she knows something is up and is merely humouring him because she loves him.

He isn’t ready for the birds and the bees talk, and he seriously doubts he will ever be ready for the zauberbiester-can-have-babies-too-under-certain-circumstances talk that will definitely ensue if he goes there. He’s ten weeks now.

 

By virtue of always wearing his overcoat or raincoat, and never lingering whilst picking up or dropping off Diana, Sean is absolutely sure that Adalind doesn’t know. She hates him, so their rather frosty relationship helps to keep her at bay. Or perhaps she knows and doesn’t care, which is also good.

 

He continues to look after himself, while reading up about his situation as far as is possible. What little that is available to him seems to linger on some stomach-turning details about delivery, and offers very little insight as to what goes on in between conception and baby. Birth seems to involve a hexenbiest, a rather nasty spell and a very big knife. Knowing he’s going to be split open from hip to hip with a ceremonial dagger, and then stitched back together like an old quilt, and it will probably be weeks in the healing process, not hours or days, makes him tense up and wonder what the hell he's doing.

 

He's put a couple of calls in to his mother. The first time she didn’t answer. But since it was days after he found out he was pregnant and she rightly judged that he was ringing her to tick her off about his new situation, he wasn’t surprised.

The second time when he rings, and is answered by her bored-sounding lackey who informs him that Madame Elizabeth was engaged in a project and he would have to wait for her to get back to him makes Sean’s hackles rise, and he barely contains himself from snapping back that he’s her son, and not a goddamned project!

So. He’s on his own. So what was new. (Damn hormones). He can get by, he’s been doing it long enough. He’s got his research (not all that helpful, but he’s got time) and he’s got Rosalee, so that’s alright then.

 

He’s been putting off asking for the sabbatical, but he’s thirteen weeks now, his disguises are a whisker away from no longer working, and he knows its time to ask. So he books in with the Commissioner, on the same day as his Monday full of committee meetings and other political horse-trading (that he really cannot see the back of too soon, realising yet again that he isn’t actually sad to have lost out on the Mayorship) and starts to plan for how he’s going to get through the rest of his time.

 

It’s been a long-ass day. Nick is tired, wet through and filthy from a ridiculous chase across a muddy field in the pouring rain. Next time Wu and Hank can do the chasing. He stops by his locker and removes some clean, dry clothes and then heads for the Men’s Washroom and a nice hot shower.

 

It’s been a really long-ass day. Meeting after meeting, mostly, it seems, with people who still want to punish him in some way for either Black Claw or the Mayoral race, or just because they don’t like him, or the police, and Sean is exhausted. He gets his sabbatical signed off at the expense of yet another lecture on getting his head back in the game, and, with an ill-disguised glance at his body, an admonition to get himself back in shape. He’s tired, he’s been feeling queasy since lunch, which he is slightly alarmed at, especially as he barely picked at it, and he’s starting to feel a little light-headed. Back at the precinct, he heads towards the washroom to compose himself before heading back to his office to prepare for his hand-over in two weeks.

Two weeks is kinda long, especially as that’s going to put him on fifteen weeks and stretch his disguise capabilities to their absolute limits, but he couldn’t argue for a shorter hand-over without giving a valid reason and he didn’t want to be either an object of curiosity, or get himself fired.

Someone is in the showers, and a casual glance at the clothing lying on the bench suggests that it's Nick. Great, the one person he really didn’t want to see right now. The queasy feeling is getting worse, and just then the shower shuts off, Sean dives into the first stall he can see, shutting the door, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall as he tries to control the nausea and the swimmy feeling, zauberbiester do not faint, even when they are sick, tired and thirteen weeks pregnant.

Nick comes out of the shower just in time to see Renard vanish into a toilet stall. _Really?_ He towel dries his hair roughly, thoroughly ignoring the tiny twinge of guilt which says that he’s been kinda mean to the zauberbiest over the last few weeks, having slept with him.

But he loves Adalind, he really does, and if she ever found out that he slept with Sean Renard, well there was a fair chance she would murder him, resurrect him and murder him again. Shoving Sean away was instinctive, and (he had to admit) kinda enjoyable. The guy was pretty much a punching bag after all.

“Are you done?” Hank leaned in to the washroom, and some imp of mischief in Nick decided to have a little fun at the Captain’s expense. After all, it wasn’t like Renard didn’t deserve it, after everything he had put them through.

“Nearly there.” Nick dried himself roughly and started to dress, “hey Hank?” Hank walked in to the locker area.

“What?”

“You noticed the Captain lately?”

Well that was still a slight sore spot with Hank. “Not if I don’t have to, no.” he growled.

“He’s getting fat.”

Hank smirked, it had no humour in it. “Must be all those fancy dinners at City Hall.”

Nick smiled to himself, and pitched his voice in the direction of the unseen Renard. “Probably, can’t bear losing.”

 

Their voices became more muffled as they left the washroom. Sean leaned against the flimsy partition and slowly sagged to his knees, bending over the bowl he lost the tiny amount of his ‘fancy’ lunch that he had managed to eat, shaking with the strain.

He knew that Nick despised him. Well that was absolute confirmation. Sean couldn’t get out of there quick enough. He put his hand down and held his belly gently, _I love you, Baby Girl._ He really was alone.

 

He waited in his office until he was certain that Burkhardt, Griffin, Wu and all the others were gone home. He was feeling sick and shaky, called a taxi instead of driving. By the time he reached his front door, his vision was blurring a little and he was feeling really sick again. Sean got indoors and made the decision to call Rosalee.

 

Rosalee shifted the phone to her other hand and shot a glare at her husband. Nick always found a willing listener in Monroe, especially when the complaint was about Renard.

He was on the other end of the phone, and very apologetic, but he thought he needed something for nausea and he was sorry to disturb her. He sounded quiet and shaky and very unlike his usual self, she tried to soothe him over the phone, saying that she would be there as soon as possible.

Just as the call ended, Nick said something very off colour about Sean getting fat, and Rosalee scowled, snapping back “well apparently not too fat for you to sleep with all those weeks ago.” Which was when the penny dropped.

She realised instantly who the father was, why Sean was so scared that Nick would find out, and her heart went out to the zauberbiest. Nick and Monroe were staring at her, open-mouthed, and as badly as she wanted to bring Nick to a sense of his responsibilities, Sean was clearly frightened of that outcome. So she pursed her lips, gave them both a fierce glare, informed her husband that the triplets had been fed and she would be back in time for their next feeding, and swept out of the Spice Shop.


	4. Nesting Behaviour and the Zauberbiest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean is off work... and discovers that he really rather likes it. Of course, things do not stay quiet and comfortable for very long.

He had done it. He was officially on sabbatical.

The first day, Sean had woken up at the usual time, and realised that for the first time in his adult life... he didn't have to. If he wanted to sleep in until 12 and take a leisurely breakfast, follow by a very slow walk along the river, where no one was likely to see him... he could. So he did.

He had been on sabbatical for a week now. It was eleven in the morning, and he's consuming grapefruit in his boxers and a dressing gown, haphazardly thrown on, belt loose, his sixteen week belly simply on display. Frankly the Grimm and his friends could come along and break down the door, and Sean isn't sure if he would even care.

He could read all day if he liked. All he needed to do was take care of him, and Baby Girl, and Diana when she was with him, and Sean already has a plan for avoiding any real contact with Adalind or Nick, a plan which has worked just fine so far.

So he's eating grapefruit in his boxers, without a care in the world.

Rosalee would be round with some more teas, and a supplement which he had been taking since his bad turn three weeks ago. Everything was turning out fine for a change.

 

The problem with knowledge is that once you know a thing, you cannot un-know it. Sean Renard was pregnant and Nick Burkhardt was the father... the sperm donor. Rosalee had come by this knowledge by accident, and now she was trying to work out what she could do, if anything.

The night she made the momentous discovery, at the time Rosalee was so angry with Nick's attitude she would have kept the secret regardless. Sean's affliction had turned out to be a simple food poisoning, which had scared both him and her, but after a 24 hour go around, he bounced back surprisingly well. But that night, as Rosalee helped him, it occurred to her that he was alone. No one to help him. And Nick was the father.

Except for the last three weeks, she watched Sean change from an uptight, and very reserved man, to as happy as she had ever seen him. She had never seen him happy before, and that left a lasting impression. Nick continued to spew vitriol in Renard's direction, and she knew that Sean did fear what would happen if the Grimm knew the truth.

That was the sticking point. However much Nick was her friend, he claimed to hate Sean, and seemed to take a perverse pleasure in striking out at the older man. Adalind too, had made it very clear on several occasions that she hated the Zauberbiest, and like it or not, Sean was vulnerable. Though Rosalee suspected he would have denied that beyond his dying breath if cornered. Nick and Adalind presented a united front, except when it came to Diana. There they were smart enough to realise that Diana loved her father, and sensible enough never to state their dislike of the Captain in front of her.

There are times Rosalee has seen a look in the girl's eyes which says that she is well aware of the situation, but choosing to do or say nothing.

 

After the acute and short-lived food poisoning of three weeks before, Sean has given Rosalee a key to let herself in the front door, which she does. Calling out "Sean, it's me..." leaving off the 'are you decent'. She hasn't quite relaxed _that_ much around him. The uptight, reserved man might have given way to a gentler, and bizarrely great deal less inhibited version of himself but.... He had taken to getting up late, hanging around eating breakfast in his boxers and just enjoying himself with a distinct level of glee which suggested that under all that Royal stuffiness, Sean Renard was an unrepentant troll who appreciated a good joke. Even if it was occasionally against himself.

"Up here."

Rosalee rolls her eyes and mounts the stairs. His natural European reserve had apparently vanished, along with those rather stiff manners. Three weeks ago he never would have yelled at her unseen from another room a floor above.

She makes a right turn at the top of the stairs, and enters his bedroom. Glancing around in some surprise.

The first night, when she had helped him to bed, made him tea for his nausea and given him something to help him sleep that wouldn't harm the baby, the room was almost Spartan in it's lack of personality. Immaculately furnished, but showing nothing of the owner.

Now when she looks around, there's an additional table beyond the bedside chest of drawers, a growing pile of books on it. Books in at least four languages that she can see at a glance. At some point a coffee machine has appeared, with a tray, some mugs, some teaspoons, all the things he needs to make coffee without going downstairs. A mini fridge sits next to it, on the low chest of drawers against the wall. Two sizeable paintings have appeared on the walls, there's a new chaise longue, and a pile of throws and pillows.

As she looks about her, it occurs to Rosalee, stepping out on the balcony, that in a strange sort of way, Renard was nesting. He was making his space comfortable for him. Which was oddly adorable, even though that word sat very uneasily.

He was sitting in a chair, feet up on the lower part of the railing that surrounded the balcony, robe wide open, bowl of fruit resting on his baby bump, more pronounced because he was sitting down, looking as though he didn't have a care in the world, which was when the words that Rosalee had been about to say concerning Nick being the father just died in her throat.

Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, but Renard was at peace, and Rosalee isn't going to ruin it.

 

Adalind Schade really can't believe it when Sean takes a sabbatical. Mr All-Work-And-No-Play doesn't know the meaning of the words 'time off'. So she goes to do some investigating. There's a second car in the parking space out front, next to Sean's Tahoe, which Adalind recognises as Rosalee's car. She parks a little way down the road and slinks back. Forewarned is forearmed with Sean Renard, he's all about himself, and Adalind is just protecting what's hers.

She slips through the side gate and creeps around the side of the house. She can hear voices above her, so looks up instinctively.

Sean is smiling, she never sees him smile (except at Diana), and then he stands up and follows Rosalee back indoors, and she's so shocked it is as though her legs won't hold her. She gets herself under control and slips out of the gate and back to her car. All she can think of, all the way home, is that Nick lied to her, about that night when he didn't come home until dawn, because Adalind is not a fool. Sean Renard is pregnant and she knows him so well, she knows it's Nick's.

She's a hexenbiest again. A powerful one. She knows all about Zauberbiester, and the stories, which are all, obviously, true. Sean Renard is clearly well advanced with his pregnancy. She wonders who, then realises it could only be Elizabeth. And Adalind wants to beat the steering wheel with both fists and scream in frustration because if Sean has a child by Nick she can imagine her own daughter being shoved aside as Granny Elizabeth dotes on the grandchild that her own son carries. A child by the Grimm. She needs to play this carefully in her own way.

 

Unaware of the impending apocalypse heading in his direction, or indeed of his new paternity status, Nick just knows that it's very different without Renard around, and there's this curious void which he really doesn't understand because he's so done with the Zauberbiest.

He doesn't care. He's sure of that.


	5. Pride and Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adalind introduces Nick to the situation. It goes about as badly as you might expect.

By the time Adalind reaches home, she's calmed down a little. She doesn't want to lose Nick, so blowing up at him will probably drive him straight into Sean's arms, and if there is one thing that Adalind hates, it’s losing. Especially to Sean Renard.

So she bides her time, and in the meantime, she watches her Grimm.

And comes to a very unfortunate conclusion...

She has come to love Nick, and they've wasted so much time fighting, and he does love her in his way, but it's clear to Adalind that his heart lies somewhere else. For all his often stressed antipathy, she has the smallest suspicion that his real love is Sean Renard.

Well, she has some dignity left, she hopes. She really wants Nick to stay, but not if he's always going to be secretly yearning for something else, and in such denial that he is convinced he hates the man he slept with.

She has a decision to make, and that isn’t going to happen in five minutes. She puts it off, and puts it off, because inside she’s dying and boiling for revenge at the same time, and she doesn’t want to lose what she apparently has, even if she doesn’t have it at all.

Nick carries on, oblivious to her turmoil.

 

Adalind has no idea why she decides to bite the bullet. How she came to the decision is a mystery, perhaps it’s Nick’s placid assurance that he’s fine, therefore everything else must be fine. Though you would think the Grimm would sense that all is not well at Chez Burkhardt.

Perhaps it’s because she’s a hexenbiest, and to be bested by another hexenbiest, an older and far more powerful one than Adalind would ever be is impossible to endure.

Or maybe it is just to see the look on Nick’s face as he gets a load of Sean, heavily pregnant, and Sean’s corresponding horror at being seen, all vulnerable, by the Grimm.

 

Sean’s back is aching, his Baby Girl is kicking the hell out of his insides, and he swears that she begins each morning using his kidneys as footballs, because the endless urge to pee is almost overwhelming. Almost nothing fits, his suits are becoming a distant memory. The only thing that really covers him fully is his dressing gown. He has amassed a small collection of huge tee shirts of cheap material, general shapelessness which cover his growing baby belly, and he has a couple of pairs of sweatpants that ensure that if he has to be anywhere in public, he’s at least legally dressed and not going to be arrested for public indecency.

_Public?! Hah!_

As far as Sean is concerned, from here to the end, he’s hiding out in his house, and executing his plan to have Diana delivered and returned via an Eisbiber Uber driver who is too scared of Sean to blab about his situation.

Diana is Diana. She isn’t going to betray him any time soon.

He’s safe.

Until Adalind walks in to his house, trailing an unsuspecting Nick, and everything just kind of falls apart.

 

Much later, when they’ve gone, and he’s collapsed on his own sofa, and tried to quell the shivering inside and slow his heart rate because this much stress is not good for Baby Girl, he realises he has become complacent. Leaving the French windows wide open, knowing Adalind’s disposition was unwise and now he’s paid for it.

 

Adalind leads Nick through the unlocked side gate, knowing Renard the way she does, she suspects that he would be arrogant enough to think himself safe in his house, in its gated community, therefore hot day, it was more than likely that the French windows would be open.

She’s told a few white lies to Nick, to get him to come with her without fuss. So he has no clue when she boldly walks into Sean’s living space, and calls his name.

“Sean.”

For a moment, nothing, then he appears from the kitchen to the left of her and it is as though time stands still.

He’s heavily pregnant, since she’s certain it’s Nick’s she can even calculate that he’s twenty-two weeks. Nick is standing there, staring, open-mouthed because it’s pretty damn clear that Sean isn’t fat, he’s actually really and truly pregnant, and Nick seems caught mid-thought because all he can do is stand there and gape like an idiot. But the moment of triumph that sweeps through her dies as Adalind looks up at Sean’s face.

He’s done a lot of wrong things in his life. So has she. And even she can admit that, but this, bringing Nick to Sean’s house to surprise him with the details of what has devastated her since she found out about it five weeks before; well, this might eclipse all her past actions, and this time there might be no way back at all.

For every second of Nick’s continued silence, Adalind can see Sean’s shields break wider.

He backs up. One step, two, turns away, his arms he folds protectively around his belly, and she knows he sees them both as a threat.

There’s a tiny part of who Adalind was before that rejoices in that, the hexenbiest she is now is confused, because the feelings that she developed while she was trying to get her powers back, and then suppress them to help Nick, understand that she might have broken everything between herself and her babies’ fathers for good.  
Nick is soundlessly gaping at Sean, who is taking the silence as a bad thing, and Adalind desperately tries to retrieve something from her grave miscalculation. She takes a hasty step forward, stretches out a hand towards Sean.

In retrospect, the precise wrong move. Sean flinches, and steps back further, a look of terror on his face. In his space, they are both a threat, and Nick’s complete lack of verbal response is compounding that.

Adalind dithers for a second. Entirely unused to the situation, she has no clue what to do.

“You better go.” Rosalee’s calm voice from behind Sean carries no specific level of accusation, but Adalind hears it all the same. Nick’s eyes track towards Rosalee, and he steps forward, Sean flinches and looks away, Rosalee moves up close to him and puts a supportive arm around him, as Adalind grabs Nick’s elbow and drags him past Sean and Rosalee to the front door before Nick can find his voice and make everything a hundred times worse.

 

So Nick knows. Or he knows that Sean is pregnant, Rosalee doubts he has even realised his own part in it, so she still has part of a secret to keep.

Finding Nick and Adalind confronting Sean in his own living room was not wholly unexpected, and Rosalee is sorry it happened, because Sean is going to take a long time to get over this. And there is another terrifying little detail to be taken into account. So far, Sean has been unable to make actual contact with his mother. Rosalee isn’t certain that he actually knows where Elizabeth is. And Sean needs a hexenbiest to give birth, safely.

 

Sean slowly puts himself back together. He hasn’t folded before, even five and a half months pregnant, he’s not going to start now. He is on his own. He knows that. He straightens his back and sits up, regrets it when his back twinges, then relaxes as Rosalee’s fingers work their magic.

Rosalee turns to the practicalities. She has tea for him, and something to help him relax as his pregnancy advances, his male body is being pushed to its limits, as a temporary womb makes room for itself amongst his internal organs.

 

They’ve gone a mile before Nick slumps back in the passenger seat and says “what the fuck??” Adalind scowls.

“Really? You are going to lead with that?” She pulls to the side of the road. “Sean Renard is pregnant.”

Nick gapes at her, “I can see that.” His voice sounds very much like he doesn’t believe it, but the evidence is overwhelming, and his tone suggests that he doesn’t think it has anything to do with him.

That pushes Adalind’s buttons. “Really? You can see that. You can understand how this might be something to worry about?”

Nick crosses his arms defensively. “Why are you looking at me?”

Adalind sees red. “Because it’s your fault,” she screeches at him.

Nick opens his mouth to defend himself and then his jaw drops as the information sinks in.

Adalind feels the rage subside and the hurt come boiling forth. “Why couldn’t you have just been honest with me.” She says in a small voice. “I don’t understand, I thought you hated Sean and loved me, but now, I don’t know what to think.”

Nick is clearly in information overload, because he starts to try and say something, then trails off before he can begin. “I’m sorry.” He tries again.

“Well sorry is as sorry does, Nick.” Adalind starts the car again. “You need to think about what you actually want, and ignoring Sean is not going to cut it this time. Because that is a situation we are going to have to deal with.” She shoots a hard glance at him, “preferably before his child is born.”


	6. Counting Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adalind surprises herself.... and Sean.
> 
> Rosalee is concerned.

It takes Adalind more than three weeks to get in the door at Sean's place again.

Nick is stubbornly pretending this isn't happening, and Diana is angry with her, and Nick... She loves her Daddy, and given her response to Nick when he was in Sean's form, Adalind is a little anxious not to upset her daughter. The strangely oblique conversation Adalind has with her three-going-on-twelve year old daughter surprises both of them, Adalind thinks. Diana knows that daddy is having a baby, a girl she informs her mother. Despite never having had one of those birds-and-bees conversations, Adalind doesn't feel the need to explain to Diana. Partly because she started to, and Diana rolled her eyes, and given that she's kept the secret this long, Adalind stops trying.

Anyway, she spends three weeks trying to talk to him. Finally succeeding.

He's wary. Which is no surprise at all. She supposes that she's made his nervousness worse, but forgive her, she was kind of hurt too. He lets her in, when he walks away, the knuckles of his right hand go to his back, and Adalind startles herself. She offers to rub his back.

Sean submits. He's tired and sore, and lonely, apart from Rosalee, he sees no one except his own daughter and the physical stresses on his body are a bit much to deal with. Adalind remembers well the pressure on her back, and figures it has to be a lot worse for Sean. His body was not designed for this. As her fingers dig in to his knotted muscles, his moan of pleasure brings a pink tinge to his face, and hers.

She had only intended going there to talk to him, make sure that she hadn't mucked everything up for Diana, but she finds herself going back, again and again. Doing little things for him. Remembering how alone she felt with Eric dead, and the tension of Sean's family, and then Sean offering her a life-line of sorts.

 

Of course, the difference is Nick is not dead. He's just in denial. They don't talk about Nick, and Adalind and Nick never talk about Sean. And Diana sits at the dinner table with them, the visible evidence of Sean Renard's existence, and it is all horribly awkward except when it isn't.

So Adalind keeps visiting Sean and Diana spends time with her heavily pregnant father and everything carries on as though any of this is just another normal day in the lives of an average family. Which of course it absolutely is not.

 

Rosalee is worried. They have discussed this a couple of times, but Sean's got six weeks and there is no sign of his mother. This is a real problem. Rosalee knows the theory but not the actual execution of what happens, and the only hexenbiest they now know is Adalind, if Sean can't make contact with his mother, and since Adalind only knows the theory of this, Rosalee's asked, this could spell disaster for Sean.

 

He keeps trying, of course he does, she is his mother and quite apart from his own situation, he is scared what might have happened to her.

For his own situation, as time marches on, he has never been more scared. And tried harder not to show it.

Though perhaps informing Rosalee that maybe it would be better if he did die in child birth, then everyone could move on comfortably with their lives without the inconvenience of Sean, was not a good idea. She doesn't read him a lecture, instead she wraps her arms around him and holds him close, which makes his eyes water and inconvenient tears fall (damn hormones still!), and that also makes him feel like a schlemiel for hurting her.

 

He is down to a handful of days now. His baby belly is enormous, he's got the things out so that Rosalee, and surprisingly, Adalind, can familiarise themselves with it all. He's tired and scared, not just for himself but for Amelie. Perhaps Nick should have a say in her name, but she's his baby girl and Nick hasn't come close.

 

Rosalee has told Monroe what was going on. After Nick knew it would only have been a matter of time, and she has the feeling she might need him to run things back and forth to the Spice Shop.

Only it's zero hour, and this is not going down the way the information they have says it will. The zaubertrank has not worked as it should, Sean can clearly feel the knife, and there's so much blood, and Adalind is trying her best and somehow, there's a loud cry.... and...

 

He's exhausted, drenched in sweat, he felt every inch of the blade slicing through his flesh, and he feels he's dying, it hurts so badly. He has no energy even to cry out at the pain, every ounce of his being forced into giving his Amelie her life.

 

They are exhausted and terrified, and covered in a lot of Sean's blood, but she's out and she's breathing and the air is filled with her feisty cries as Monroe cradles her and cleans her while Rosalee and Adalind stitch him up. Sean's passed out from the pain and the tiredness which has followed him through the last few weeks. Adalind stitches him back together and they manage to ease him up enough so that they can wrap the bandage around his body, using the recipe on the sheet as a dressing, even though the zaubertrank didn't really work, and he has lost a lot more blood than he should have with the spell. They sit either side of his semi-conscious body holding hands across him, and shed some tears of exhaustion and relief. Zauberbiest and baby are alive, baby is well, zauberbiest is going to need a lot of rest, but given his strength should pull through and they are counting this one as a win for the team.

And Monroe cradles Sean's baby girl in his arms and wonders just where the hell Elizabeth Lascelles is, because her son and grand-daughter surely need her. Nick he tries not to think of at all because Nick has been completely conspicuous by his absence, and Monroe is strangely disappointed in his friend.

Sean comes to slowly, the pain in his middle has dulled a little, but his chances of sitting up unaided are zero, but they help him sit up with the aid of several pillows, and Sean is just lost in the wonder of his little perfect Amelie as Rosalee puts her into his arms.

 

Of course they can't just leave him alone. He can barely move. He needs help to the bathroom, he can scarcely take care of himself and his new baby. Over the next few days, Sean's house becomes a crèche downstairs, while upstairs Adalind and Rosalee, and occasionally Monroe, fuss over Amelie and help Sean get through his days.

It's tough. There is a hefty bandage around his midriff from waist to below his navel, once eased upright, which only happens in stages, because he's stitched together through the middle, and he needs help to sit up and get to his feet, he walks with a limp and something of a stoop, and he daren't pause, just in case he pitches over because that would be humiliating. And he's not sure he could get upright on his own. Monroe helps him with more support than Sean is prepared to admit he needs.

It hurts, he's uncomfortable, picks at his food, he's tired and lethargic, and finds it quite hard to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. But his whole world is caught up in Amelie and Diana. He's made peace with Adalind and Rosalee, and Monroe...

And Nick never comes...


	7. Nick's A Dad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick doesn't really know what it is about Sean Renard that drives him so crazy. It's part attraction, part frustration, there's deference in there too, because Sean is a police captain, and a bloody prince, and those aspects of the man's character make Nick want to bow to him and punch him in the face at the same time.
> 
> But he's a dad.... and so is Sean.... and this is the truly weird part, they are dads together so Nick has to get over himself, because this is really, really important, and whether or not it is attraction or hatred that drives Nick, he's a parent, he has to man up.

Nick pushes the doorbell, glances upward to the camera, wondering if Sean is even going to answer the door if he sees Nick standing there.

Then the door opens and it's Rosalee and Nick's carefully prepared little speech flies out of his head.

She looks quite cross, "About time." She says. And Nick does have the grace to feel quite ashamed about that. Rosalee is right. He should have been here, whatever his relationship with Sean.

He hears a slight gasp and looks up. Sean is coming down the stairs, he's shirtless, wearing sleep pants that ride quite low on his hips, there is a heavy bandage around his midriff, disappearing under the waistband of the sleep pants, and he looks grey and a bit strained. He's holding the bannister in a firm grip and when he begins to move again, Nick notes his zauberbiest's stiff and careful movements.

Sean pauses at the bottom of the stairs, he's still weak and sore, but being split open isn't something he is going to get over in five minutes, as he has been told repeatedly by both Rosalee and Adalind, and he needs to give his body time. Besides he has a baby girl who needs him not to do stupid things.

Now Nick, the sperm donor that donated some of the DNA for his baby girl is right there, in front of him and all Sean can do is panic. Nick is younger, he's in a solid relationship with a woman, they have a child together, it doesn't matter that Sean has Diana, because Diana lives with them, and all that Sean can think is that Nick hates him and he's come to take Amelie away, and Sean knows that Nick would find a way to ensure that Sean loses in court if it comes to a legal fight, and Sean just wants to gather up his Amelie and run.

He sways a little, as a myriad of emotions cross his face, and Rosalee's hand is on his arm, "Sean you had better sit down before you fall down." and she's guiding him to his couch, and he sits. Rosalee places Amelie in his arms, and then his world narrows to the wonder of his daughter, aware all the time that Nick is there.

 

Nick's shocked, because this isn't going like he imagined it would. He thought that Sean might be defensive, and push back against him. The default position that they seem to have adopted for at least the last couple of years. But Sean looks genuinely terrified by his presence. The older man is holding the baby close as though he fears that Nick has come to take his daughter away from him.

In that moment, Nick realises that somewhere deep down he does love Sean, though whether Sean is going to believe that given the last couple of years or so, Nick isn't sure, but he knows he will never try to take the zauberbiest's baby from him, because there's a look on Sean's face that Nick has never seen before, and he suspects if he tries to break that bond, everyone will suffer.

He sits on the couch, not too close, because Sean's practically leaning away from him, and if he pushes it he may not get another chance to make this right ever. Nick wants to make this right.

He senses that talking too much right now will make Sean take flight, and he's quite horrified at the weakened state the zauberbiest is in. So while his normal instinct would be to talk his way out of this mess, he needs to let Sean relax, let Sean make the first move.

 

The presence of his baby in his arms soothes Sean. He feels safe with her there, holding her, despite the presence of her other biological father. He starts to relax, because Nick has made no move, only sat waiting for Sean to make some kind of move, which he supposes is pretty typical when it comes to Nick's approach with Wesen.

It's definitely Sean's Wesen that is on top today. He's not woging, but his instincts are entirely focused on Amelie and protection which he knows has nothing to do with his Royal side. Probably for the first time, Sean feels truly comfortable with his biest. He is not like other zauberbiester, he has no need to be, and a little too late he realises that now.

He relaxes a little, turning Amelie so that Nick can see her more fully.

Nick moves a tiny bit closer, not enough to stress Sean, but enough to see their baby girl. He smiles, she is beautiful.

He looks questioningly at Sean.

"Amelie." Sean says, a wealth of warmth and affection in his voice, and Nick repeats the name.

He has no idea where this is going to go. He needs to go slower and more carefully than he has even gone into anything before, because he doesn't want to spook Sean, and there is still Adalind, and Nick does not want to mess that up... but something might have to give and he knows it. But right here, right now, he has a baby girl, and Sean, and that's all that really matters.


End file.
